Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Verdi Heroines
see track listing below review
Maria Callas (soprano)
Philharmonia Orchestra/Nicola Rescigno (Macbeth, Ernani,
Don Carlo - Tu che la vanità )
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire/Nicola
Rescigno
rec. 19-21, 24 September 1958, No.1 Studio, Abbey Road, London (Macbeth,Ernani,Don
Carlo - Tu che la vanità ); 17-27 December 1963, 20-21 February
1964, Salle Wagram, Paris except (Aida) April 1964, Salle Wagram,
Paris.
EMI CLASSICS 4332912 [79:12]
This is simply the latest re-issue of a compilation first re-mastered
and issued in 2007 in the EMI “Great Recordings of the Century”
series, already ably and enthusiastically reviewed by my colleague Dominy
Clements. The selection was made from three celebrated Verdi recital
albums recorded between September 1958 and April 1964. I have often
remarked that the decline in Callas’s voice was by no means linear
or progressive; in many ways she sounds as good in 1964 as six years
previously; the latest recording here, “Ritorna vincitor”,
finds her in excellent, authoritative voice, in no way appreciably inferior
to her “Macbeth” arias. The bad patch came in 1962 and 1963
and these takes were made when she was in better voice; you may hear
on the EMI “Callas Rarities” double disc set that even as
late as 1969 she was singing Verdi spectacularly well.
Well filled though the disc is at over 79 minutes, room could not be
made for everything and the one item I particularly miss is her carpet-chewing
version of Abigaille’s big aria from “Nabucco” but
what remains still constitutes a treasurable compendium of Callas at
her finest in Verdi.
Whenever I re-listen to those three spectacularly chilling and powerful
“Macbeth” arias, I regret afresh that she never made a studio
recording of what I believe to be her greatest Verdi role. These are
definitive accounts, truly “the voice of a she-devil” that
Verdi stipulated. The glory of her cavernous - some would say hollow
- lower register is frequently in evidence yet she is also capable of
the utmost delicacy, as in her inflection of the word “immaginar”.
Even the top D of the “andiam” on which she exits is in
place, leaving the most remarkably haunting impression. Yes; the top
notes flap, the tone too often hardens or curdles but always her voice
is in service of the dramatic purpose and the subtleties of her expression
of text continue to imprint themselves indelibly on the listener’s
mind, rendering subsequent accounts otiose. Again, one notes her heart-stopping
use of portamento and, those trenchant low notes; this was a voice made
to express scorn, rage and despair - qualities which these arias demand
in plenty.
For all that I had previously known and loved most of the recordings
here, I was for some reason unfamiliar with the extended ten minute
excerpt from “Aroldo” and would urge waverers to start by
sampling her account of that marvellous aria “Ah! Dagli scanni
eterei” which amply displays both her vocal accomplishment and
her gift for textual nuance.
The recorded sound is good even if the orchestra is a little distant
in the “Otello” excerpts. Callas’s long-time, trusted
conductor friend Nicola Rescigno provides pace, power and urgency and
sensitively accommodates the diva’s expressive requirements with
subtle rubato.
Ralph Moore
Track Listing
Macbeth (1847)
Nel di della vittoria... Vieni! t'affretta...
Or tutti sorgete [7:50]
La luce langue [4:10]
Una macchia è qui tuttora [11:18]
Ernani (1844)
Surta è la notte ... Ernani, Ernani, involami [6:16]
Don Carlo (1867)
Tu che la vanità [10:46]
Otello (1887)
Mi parea. M'ingiunse di coricarmi...
Mia madre aveva una povera ancella... [5:19]
Piangea cantando... [7:14]
Ave Maria, piena di grazia [4:36]
Aroldo (1857)
O Cielo! Dove son io? [9:46]
Don Carlo
O don fatale [4:44]
Aida (1871)
Ritorna vincitor! [7:08]
